Twitch is reactivating the account of former President Donald Trump in anticipation of the 2024 presidential election, following its “indefinite” ban in 2021
On Friday, the Amazon-owned company informed TechCrunch that it had reinstated Trump’s channel due to its conviction that “there is value in hearing from presidential nominees directly, when possible,”
Trump’s team utilized his channel to broadcast portions of his campaigns before the ban. The suspension has been lifted, and his channel can resume operations.
Following the January 6 disturbance on the U.S. Capitol building, Twitch and numerous other technology companies suspended Trump’s account. Among the other companies that did so were Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter (now X).
The change occurred just a few days after Meta stated that the suspension penalties for Trump’s Facebook and Instagram profiles would no longer be heightened. Meta’s rationale for its decision was somewhat comparable to Twitch’s: The company asserted that all presidential nominees should be treated equally on its platform before the election.
It is important to mention that YouTube reinstated Trump’s account last year, and X did the same in 2022 under the new executive leadership of Elon Musk.
Twitch has lifted the ban; however, the company has informed TechCrunch that Trump’s account will still be subject to its Community Guidelines.
“We will persist in enforcing our Community Standards and taking the requisite enforcement action when we detect violations of our policies,” stated a spokesperson for the company. “Twitch does not have a “public figure policy,” which means that all channels are subject to our guidelines equally, irrespective of whether the channel belongs to a public figure.”
